artNotes from Hyde House

August and vacation are done here at Hyde House, and we look now to the new exhibition opening this Friday featuring artist Alice Lynn Greenwood.

Sally Armstrong

August and vacation are done here at Hyde House, and we look now to the new exhibition opening this Friday featuring artist Alice Lynn Greenwood.

I spoke in my last article about this artist's former showings in places like New York City, Buffalo & Brooklyn, New York, Woodstock, Vermont, Fayetteville, Ark., and other Arkansas locations.

Since 1988, Alice Lynn has produced a number of collections of paintings following various themes, and for ours she has chosen "THE ART OF TEXTING: Words of Wisdom, Wit & Whimsy." This group of 39 paintings present various quotations, sayings, and poetry in artistic ways, colorful embellishments include patterned fabrics and sequins carefully applied. Her paintings are lean feasts of exquisite elegance and stylish simplicity seasoned with wisdom, wit and whimsy. While glancing back to the luminescence of the Pre-Raphaelite painters, the artist's entire oeuvre is informed by the organic lyricism of Art Nouveau and the optimism and new technology of the Belle Époque. Greenwood's newest series presented here is a collection of riffs on finely turned phrasings – some succinct, others meandering.

A devoted lover of language with a preference for the poetic, Greenwood artfully nods to sms texting – the contemporary techno communication often created with two thumbs on tiny, hand-held keyboards typing characters on LEDs.

In this dynamic collection, the artist uses her palette and her paint-laden brushes, rather than just her thumbs, as her tools of transmission. Her canvases are her screens, in lieu of various light-emitting diodes. Her painted texts emphasize that the most mundane sight bite can be sent with thoughtful beauty, grace and courtesy – as though letters and symbols can be rendered and transmitted while wearing kid gloves. In the hands of this artist-of-a-certain-age, gilded pigment, softly saturated colors and spare embellishments invite the viewer's eyes and mind to enjoy a 3-D celebration while getting the message, whether ordinary or esoteric.

I hope you will join us for the opening reception Friday, Sept. 7 beginning at 6 p.m. to meet Alice Lynn Greenwood and view this most unusual exhibition which will remain in our gallery three weekends through Sept. 30.